


You can't say no forever

by beyoncepadthai



Category: The Office (US) RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-04-28 02:58:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5075131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyoncepadthai/pseuds/beyoncepadthai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or "five times Mindy and B. J.'s super-weird relationship was more surreal than a David Lynch movie".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?

**Author's Note:**

> I loved writing this, so I hope you like it! :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drunk kisses and midnight hugs.

_March, 2005._

"Have we ever gone for a drink... I mean, together?", he asked while his left eyebrow rose a little bit. Was he flirting with her?

After all, she wasn't  _that_ surprised because they were friends since they met for the first brainstorming in the writers' room. Well... Maybe she first had the vibe that he was kind of a dick when he said  _When Harry met Sally_ was more like "when Doofus met Dummy", but he was the same age as her and it was great having someone to talk with about anything. And by anything she meant movies, books... And also music and gossips, even though he sighed every time she started singing Beyoncé's _Crazy in love_  while she was writing some dialogues. _  
_

"I guess we haven't, Beej," she answered with a hint of a smile on her lips. "Any idea, weirdo?"

He hated that nickname she had invented for him. Beej. He already had a nickname, but apparently she thought it wasn't enough. If only she was like any other of the girls he worked with at  _Punk'd_... But she wasn't one of these girls. She had to be the former intern on the Conan show who wrote and starred in a Broadway play about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. And, obviously, she wasn't going to fall as easy as the other girls had done before and he didn't even want to be in a relationship with her, it was more like a one-night stand fantasy that came to his head after all these hours at the writers' room eating unhealthy burgers and drinking beer. 

"Of course. There's this pub near to my flat where I **—** ," he didn't even finish the sentence, a very common thing he noticed about Mindy but it wasn't annoying for him.

"Wait. Do you want me to go... With you... Near to your house?"

"Yeah. Why not."

"Just a drink," she warned him. "I mean, not only a drink. Maybe two."

It wasn't like she was a nondrinker or anything, but she knew alcohol would make her even more giggly and an easy target for his coworker and new friend, the also Bostonian and Harvard grad Benjamin Novak... If he was thinking about doing anything after these drinks he had suggested. 

"Yeah, you mean nothing sexual between us. I... Yeah, I get it."

"Exactly. Pick me up whenever you want, I'll be home."

"Great."

"Great."

***

Both had agreed that nothing sexual would happen but let's face it, they wanted to. It wasn't her top priority when he first picked her up at home soon than she expected **—** or she was being late, following the mantra she learnt from Julie Andrews in her role of the Queen of Genovia in  _The Princess Diaries_ **—** , but all these shots they drank at the pub were almost decisive for the next thing. Oh, and there was Beej's sometimes-punchable-but-almost-always-cute face that drove her crazy. Not crazy-crazy, but maybe one-night stand-crazy. 

"You're cute. Maybe I'll kiss you tonight," she couldn't help but giggle.  

"Wow. So unexpected and weird coming from the girl who's dreaming of a Nicholas Sparks love story in her life, isn't it?"

"Shut up, you bunhead."

"How mature. And you're the older one...," he laughed at her, more easily than usual from Mindy's point of view.

And there it happened. Mindy and B.J's first kiss. A vodka-flavored kiss that she started just because she didn't want to listen to his drunken douchery, but he as well followed with more passion than she ever thought. It was like the plot of one of these rom-coms she just loved so much, and Mindy found it very entertaining. 

"You've kissed me," he announced, because nobody would have noticed. Of course. "Wanna come home tonight?"

"I told you," she said, like realising that she was making a mistake just the second after kissing him. It wasn't like high school, where you dated someone for a few days and you became the class' topic until you fell for your brother's best friend, it was a work. A work she wanted to keep as long as she could because it was the chance to be somebody in television terms. Maybe she would be the next Weekend Update anchor and that was just the start.

"But you... You've kissed me. You don't kiss and just... Kiss," he mumbled. The girl was driving him crazy with those mixed signals. 

"Yeah, I noticed that too."

"So?"

"Not tonight, buddy."

"So you're saying there's a chance."

"Yeah, just the same chances Brad Pitt has."

"You know you can't say no forever, right?"

Damn, his almost-always-cute face was turning into the sometimes-punchable face like every time they argued about something and he was right. 

"I know, but I can do it tonight."

"Ooookay. Sure," he agreed while raising his hands in a pacifical and dramatic way just before the next question. "Can I, at least, kiss you one more time?"

She took herself a few seconds just before she nodded, and there it was: the second vodka-flavored and even more confusing kiss of the night with The Killers'  _Mr. Brightside_ playing in the distance. And then the third, the fourth and a bunch of numbers you wouldn't imagine but only this: kisses that melted each other's heart with the touch of the other's lips.  _  
_

***

"I have just one bedroom. I mean, the couch isn't that bad if you want to **—** "

"I guess we can sleep together if you don't mind, don't we?," she asked with her makeup almost completely smudged in her face (and also B.J's) before yawning. She had done that before with Bren and Joce, so it wasn't  _that_ weird except she was going to sleep with the guy who was thinking of her falling for him. 

"Yeah, I think so."

The idea of sleeping with Mindy without doing anything was kind of shocking, but he didn't dislike it at all so he took his shoes off, waiting for Mindy to do the same, and he showed her his bedroom, where he had lots of books and paperwork  **—** even though she was drunk, she noticed the  _Diversity Day_ draft he gave to her with a smiley face and a "I think this will be hilarious! You're killing it Beej! Xx" in the margin. 

"Goodnight Beej," she said in a sleepy voice.

"Goodnight Min."

"Hm? Did you call me...?"

But it was too late, because he started snoring a few seconds later.


	2. Just give me one more chance to make it right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some misunderstanding and a bit of angst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, thank you so much for these comments you've sent! Also sorry for the delay, hope you like this new chapter! :)

_April, 2007._

After long days of shooting and writing, Mindy and BJ's relationship went through a lot of moments; also Kelly and Ryan's. It was really exciting for them shooting scenes whenever they could — even if the scene was finally deleted in the very last moment, like the moment where they ended inside the dumpster in _A Benihana Christmas_ hugging and kissing. It was after some dates and a lot of days working together they agreed to start a relationship — as weird as Ryan and Kelly's.

"God, Ryan is such a dick," she said after the table-read they had before shooting  _The Job_ , giggling. "Is he going to take the job and leave Kelly just like this? Poor Kelly."

"Uh, but Kelly is so exhausting and he's so tired. It's just a vibe I have," he joked. "It's not like I write for this show and I play her love interest."

"Shut up, Beej. What I'm trying to say is that she  _loves_ her, but doesn't know how to tell... In a romantical way, I mean."

"Yeah, I think so. Maybe," he shrugged.

He was sure about it even though he wouldn't admit it: of course Ryan loved Kelly and he was too dumb he didn't know how to express it — just because he felt the same about his relationship with Mindy... But he wasn't going to tell her because he wanted to seem like a cool guy. Mindy, on the other hand, was so excited about finishing the season that didn't realize probably she wouldn't kiss Ben on-screen again and joking around the set. It was true their relationship was so weird for everyone in the cast and crew of the show, and she tried to date some other guys during their on and off relationship, but she felt she had the best relationship she could ask for.

***

Dating Mindy Kaling (or what they thought it was dating each other, because there were a lot of breakups and reconciliations and things ordinary couples don't do) was one of the best things Ben (or Beej, as she wanted to call him) experimented since they started after a year fighting, kissing, fighting again and then more drunk and sober kisses: the good night and good morning texts, the smile in her face every time she talked to him... Yeah, and the sex was pretty damn good too, but not the most important thing: he was fascinated about being around her, sometimes without doing anything important. Just watching her face and these glasses he thought they were so cute but she didn't wear publicly but always when they were home — no matter if Ben or Mindy's.

"What are you watching, weirdo? I'm trying to read," she raised her copy of  _The Book Thief_ , which he gave her as a present a couple of weeks ago. "So many feels I cannot handle right now, Ben."

"Nothing, just the girl with the cutest smile in L.A. I knew you would like it," he said with a smile in his face, because he had read it before and thought she would like it too — including lots of sobbing and crying. " _Saumensch_."

She didn't do anything but smile again at his comment, and was in these moments, when she wasn't doing anything to impress him, that he loved her the most. At the moment, he was also reading book — a David Sedaris' book, which one of the writers of the show recommended to him, but he didn't pay any attention to it because Mindy's reactions were priceless and better than any book: at the end of _The Book Thief_ , Mindy even asked him for a tissue because her mascara was completely smudged all over her face. 

"You're such a drama queen, Mindy," he said with a smile after she finished the book. 

"Stop calling me a drama queen!," she laughed while shaking her head. "You  _obviously_ love when I act like the queen I am."

"Yeah, I think so." 

It was practically the same he said in the writers' room and she felt they weren't so different than Kelly and Ryan. In this moment she didn't know how to react to the answer he gave her. She  _loved_ him, and it was so painful for her when she tried to move on with another guy... But Ben wasn't an ordinary guy. He was the person who first made her laugh at the writers' room, her parents loved him, and even when they weren't together as a couple he was always there for anything. She didn't know how to call him, but it wasn't a boyfriend nor a friend. _Facebook would catalog it as "it's complicated"_ , she thought. _  
_

"You don't sound very convinced," she mumbled. 

"Why are you saying that? Of course I'm convinced... You're acting so weird after the book, Min."

"It's  _not_ about the book, Ben. It's about _us_."

"What do you mean?"

Maybe it was time to tell him all she felt about their relationship, that she wanted to be something more serious than they were and she felt so upset when she saw him flirting with any other girl that it wasn't her, but she couldn't. Surprisingly, she shrugged and smiled him as shy as she was the first time they talked.

"Nevermind, you're right and I'm such a drama queen. It's just... Ugh, the book made me act so weird," she admitted.

But she knew it wasn't the book's fault (well, maybe she was more emotional than she expected), and she decided to wait. Just wait. Maybe later things would be less weird than in that moment, when she didn't know if he was her boyfriend or it was just acting like he would have done if he ever had a sister. He hugged her and kissed her head silently, because he didn't have to say anything: she already knew it.

***

They had dinner (spicy food, as usual, because she  _loved_ it) and they watched  _Saturday Night Live_  because they both loved the show, but they were more distant than before. It wasn't until they went to bed — without cuddling or anything that he finally broke the ice and kissed her head again in silence.

"I love you, Mindy Kaling. Remember that, okay? I really do," he said, in a low voice, like he was telling her a secret even though everybody knew about it — and by everybody it meant  _everybody_ : their families, their coworkers... Even people at events talked about them as a duo. Mindy and B.J. B.J and Mindy. It sounded more like B.J-and-Mindy, like their names only made sense together. "Yeah, I know it's weird because we are not like Beyoncé and Jay-Z, but I will always love you. I _truly_ mean it," his cheeks were turning into a red color she hadn't seen before. He was truly nervous and had to clear his throat before ending what he was saying. "Wait, that sounded more cliché than I thought. Sorry. But you know, I mean what I'm saying."

"Ben, that was so cute! I mean, of course I'm like Beyoncé but...," her almost-a-speech was interrupted, surprisingly, by him.

"... What I'm trying to say is that maybe we will break up a lot of times — or not, I don't really know it. But... Maybe we will date other people, but I love you, Mindy, and that's stronger than anything. Stronger than Beyoncé and Jay-Z's relationship."

"Stronger than Beyoncé and Jay-Z's."

"That's it," he smiled and kissed her nape one last time before she yawned. "Good night."

"Good night, Ben," she said with a sleepy smile in her face, immediately closing her eyes and mumbling. "I love you." _  
_


End file.
